Mr Jody Power, Staff Engineering Lecturer, at
the National Maritime College Ireland (NMCI), gave evidence at today’s
Oral Hearing, and told the hearing that having visited MSW Incinerators
in Denmark, in his opinion, the proposed incinerators would severely
impact the development of the NMCI and adversely affect the international
reputation of the college.

Mr Power, who also holds the title of Engineering
Consultant to Zero Waste Alliance Ireland (ZWAI) said "The proposed
incinerators will, in my opinion, adversely affect the international
reputation at the college, and hinder its ability to attract and retain
staff and make student enrolement a nightmare."

Mr Power referenced his site visits to incinerators
in Denmark and the poor outcomes evidenced for health, food, recycling
rates and amenity as a stark warning to Ireland of what a future with
incinerators would look like here. He also highlighted that "With
increased levels of incineration in Denmark, recycling rates have
plummeted to become one of the lowest in the EU according to eurostat
2007 figures. 84% of Copenhagen’s landmass is polluted with
heavy metals and coastline pollution is one of the worst examples,
with fish consumption restricted from the Baltic area. What is proposed
by the incinerator application has very serious implications for Cork
Harbour and our national reputation as a green, clean country."

The original submission made on behalf of Zero
Waste Alliance Ireland outlined the conflicts of the application with
Ireland’s Government Policy with respect to our Kyoto protocol
obligations to reduce greenhouse gasses.

In the morning session, under questioning from
Engineer Alan Watson on behalf of CHASE, Mr Jarvis Good, from the
Department of Environment Birds and Wildlife Section, admitted that
there was a lack of baseline monitoring data available for bird species.
It was confirmed that there is No Data in Indavers EIS relating to
current exposure, and Mr Watson questioned how when current body burden
was not measured, a conclusion can be reached regarding effects of
additional exposure. Mr Watson said "It is like if a barman offers
a man a pint, he is not in a position to judge whether that man will
be able to drive or not, if he doesn't know how much the man has already
had to drink."

Mr Jarvis Good, concluded his paper with the
recommendation "that a bond is received [from Indaver] to cover
full costs of any ecological monitoring and restoration required for
Cork Harbour pSPA (proposed Special Protection Area) or associated
ecosystems, in the event of a serious accidental release of contaminants
from the facility."